VAN MORRISON – Moving On Skiffle – 2LP – Sky Blue Vinyl

2LP -Limited EditionSky Blue Vinyl.

It should come as no surprise that Van Morrison has made an album inspired by skiffle. Van Morrisons love of skiffle dates back to his childhood. He would hang out at the famed Belfast record store Atlantic Records, where hed hear early 20th century folk, blues and jazz from the likes of Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton. So when he heard Lonnie Donegans take on Rock Island Line he intuitively understood the music he was creating. Before long, Van Morrison was playing with a skiffle band in school.

Moving On Skiffle finds him taking a homemade style that exploded across Britain in the mid-1950s and infusing it with a level of sophistication and soulfulness that it didnt always possess the first time around. The 23-track album goes to the heart of the music Van Morrison has inhabited ever since he was six years old, hanging out in the smoky confines of Belfasts Atlantic Records. It also contains songs that underline, in their messages on the importance of freedom and living on your own terms, his lifetime philosophy.

For the most part, Van Morrison plays these timeless songs straight. Several of them feature his own arrangements, while select others feature his own characteristic lyrical twists. The ever-rebellious Morrison has changed the title of Mama Dont Allow, recorded by both the Memphis Jug Band and the Chicago blues man Tampa Red in the late 1920s, to Gov Dont Allow, a nod to his fight against the rise of government interference in our daily lives. And the gospel standard This Little Light of Mine, a key anthem of the Civil Rights movement in 60s America, is transformed into the rollicking, upbeat This Loving Light of Mine.

Opening track Freight Train is an immediate highlight, a song which was originally written by Elizabeth Cotten and then recorded by both Peggy Seeger and Chas McDevitt. Van Morrison has given it as a sophisticated jazz arrangement complete with rollicking organ, close harmony vocals and some new words. Elsewhere, Wish I Was An Apple On A True is given wonderful warmth, completed by jaunty washboard and treacle-rich vocal harmonies. Gypsy Davey remains timeless, while Van Morrisons powerful vocal and impassioned sax complement the bluesy guitar on Greenback Dollar. The album closes with Green Rocky Road, a plaintive folk gem and an ode to the troubadour life that was made famous by Fred Neil and Dave Van Ronk, and featured in the film Inside Llewyn Davis.

Key contributors on the album include Dave Keary (guitars), Pete Hurley (bass), Colin Griffin (drums) and Sticky Wicket (washboard). Current Brit folk favourite Seth Lakeman also contributes fiddle to five songs.

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Freight Train (03:25)
2. Careless Love (05:39)
3. Sail Away Ladies (03:17)
4. Streamline Train (04:02)
5. Take This Hammer (04:38)

Side B
6. No Other Baby (04:30)
7. Gypsy Davy (04:19)
8. This Loving Light Of Mine (05:09)
9. In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down (04:24)
10. Yonder Comes A Sucker (03:12)
11. Travelin Blues (03:41)

Side C
12. Gov Dont Allow (04:09)
13. Come On In (03:38)
14. Streamlined Cannonball (03:14)
15. Greenback Dollar (03:42)
16. Oh Lonesome Me (03:25)
17. I Wish I Was An Apple On A Tree (03:13)
18. Im So Lonesome I Could Cry (03:04)

Side D
19. Im Movin On (02:56)
20. Cold Cold Heart (03:26)
21. Worried Man Blues (04:37)
22. Cotton Fields (03:05)
23. Green Rocky Road (08:57)